Three New Digital-SLR Cameras for Taking Serious Photographs

If you don't mind lugging it around, a DSLR can get you the perfect shot. And only a little back pain.

Sweetie (the wife) stares at me and says, "You're taking all those cameras to the Kasdans'? You'll break your back." The cameras strung around my neck are the latest digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs). When I explain that they're more advanced than the point-and-shoots I often carry to events, Sweetie counters, "Some point-and-shoots have a 20x zoom, shoot underwater, and take HD video. They're not like the old Instamatics, where you looked through a piece of plastic that didn't accurately show you the frame, let alone the exposure. What you see is what you get." This is what happens when you have your wife proofread early versions of your column.

Although Sweetie's right, the advantage of a DSLR is that you look through the actual lens of the camera, holding it up to your eye a photographic experience that looking at an LCD screen held 18 inches from your face doesn't provide. Also, DSLRs accept multiple lenses, from wide-angle to telephoto, and they tend to have bigger, better chips for more resolution and color clarity.

Greg Marino/Studio D

At about $3,500 with the 24-to-105mm lens, the 21-mega-pixel Canon EOS 5D Mark II ($3,500) is extraordinary. (As it should be.) With a full-frame CMOS chip, you get the same depth of field and field of view as a 35mm film camera. The lenses are superb, and the focusing is instantaneous. It also shoots 1080p HD movies. I brought the 5D to the Fourth of July fireworks in Telluride, Colorado, and took great low-light photos of the firemen setting them off, illuminated by the fireworks above a challenge due to my constant ducking and screaming when the mortars shot out of their launch tubes.

Greg Marino/Studio D

The 12.1-megapixel Panasonic Lumix GH1 ($1,500 with 14-to-140mm lens) takes a completely different approach to digital photography. The image in the viewfinder is electronic, not reflected (which means it's technically not a DSLR, but it's in the same category), so it shows you exactly how the camera will expose your image, not just how it sees it. The Lumix has a manly, solid body and is the smallest of the three I tested. I shot a 1080p video of a thunderstorm from my deck in Colorado that was thrilling, if slightly reminiscent of the fireworks episode.

Greg Marino/Studio D

Although it's the least expensive of the three, the 12.3-mega-pixel Nikon D5000 ($850 with 18-to-55mm lens) is still quite good. The lens is Nikon-sharp, and the camera focuses quickly. Like the others, it shoots HD video (but only in 720p), and it doesn't auto-focus in video mode. You have to turn the barrel of the lens to keep your subject in focus, just like the good old days. Whatever DSLR you choose, be sure you're willing to carry the extra weight. Otherwise stick with a point-and-shoot, because a camera only takes great photos if you have it with you.

Barry Sonnenfeld produced Pushing Daisies and is the director of Get Shorty and Men in Black.

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